Kasparov vs Ilyumzhinov: the FIDE Presidency battle begins

[Nigel Short]

It is very simple, David. It is to stop the creation of embryonic federations, just before elections, for the purpose of rigging the vote. I happen to know that Tanzania is a proper federation because I played there last year and I am kept regularly informed of its activities. However, in the past, some federations have been little more than a single name and an address in the FIDE Directory. I have actually called sports ministries which have had no idea of the existence of chess bodies which are supposedly within their ambit.

[David Sedgwick]

It is very simple, David. It is to stop the creation of embryonic federations, just before elections, for the purpose of rigging the vote. I happen to know that Tanzania is a proper federation because I played there last year and I am kept regularly informed of its activities. However, in the past, some federations have been little more than a single name and an address in the FIDE Directory. I have actually called sports ministries who have had no idea of the existence of chess bodies which are supposedly within their ambit.

I entirely appreciate that.

What I'm not clear about is where in the FIDE Statutes it states that a Federation admitted to membership a full year beforehand is not allowed to vote in the elections.

However, as both you and Nigel Freeman have assured me that such a provision exists, I'll leave it there.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

A Chessbase partial republication of a Smithsonian article/interview of Kasparov may be of interest here:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/garry-kasparov-s-next-move

Full article here:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/g ... 180949729/

[Roger de Coverly]

The show moves on to Central America.

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... vador.html
http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... ragua.html

The offer of Russian study opportunities continues to be made.

The Ministry representatives showed interest to the suggestion of giving the opportunity for students to study chess in the Russian universities.

I know Kirsan is Russian, but why should Russian embassies be involved in what is an international election for the Presidency of a sporting or cultural body?

At the meeting also present were Mr. Jorge Vega, Continental President for Americas, Guy Jose Bendana-Guerrero, President of Nicaragua CF, Berik Balgabaev, FIDE President's Assistant, Victor Popovich and Ilya Nesterov, officials of the Russian Embassy in Managua.

[Matthew Turner]

"I know Kirsan is Russian, but why should Russian embassies be involved in what is an international election for the Presidency of a sporting or cultural body?"

because Kasparov is an opponent of Putin so they don't want him to have a platform to express his views

[Mick Norris]

Nakamura comments

I do not particularly support one side over the other as both candidates have serious flaws. However, one must look at what the incumbent has done over the past 20 years. It does not seem as though chess has fundamentally moved forward in a new direction. At the same time, it remains to be seen whether the opposition leader will be able to bring in money and sponsors which he speaks of in his campaign.

from here
http://www.chessvibes.com/nakamura-on-r ... y%E2%80%9D
where he reveals he wants to meet Rafa Benitez

[Chris Rice]

Follow up piece by Peter Doggers on the statements by the West African Federations.

http://www.chessvibes.com/joint-declara ... -elections

A few points of interest:

1. You have to agree with GK's anger that KI is using the FIDE.com site to campaign. KI really should set up a seperate one although of course that would conflict with KI's portrayal that he is FIDE.

Well now Kirsan's finally got his own campaign website http://fidefirst.com.

[Chris Rice]

More on Kirsan's new campaign site from a ChessVibes article by the excellent Peter Doggers

http://www.chessvibes.com/ilyumzhinov-l ... gn-website

[Roger de Coverly]

More on Kirsan's new campaign site from a ChessVibes article by the excellent Peter Doggers

The ChessVibes site offers readers a chance to express feedback. They are mostly negative about the prospect of another four years of the Life Presidency, not that the opinions of chess players in the major chess playing countries count for anything.

[Chris Rice]

Chessdom interviewed FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov on the opening day of the Candidates tournament at Khanty Mansiysk. Here are the highlights which are basically:

• Chess In Schools
• Increasing membership
• Olympic Inclusion


Chess in Schools

Chessdom: Another important topic for the chess world is Chess in Schools. When you won the previous elections you promised one of your focuses to be Chess in Schools program. As you are traveling a lot, what are your observations, what are the developments with Chess in Schools?

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: Usually every year I visit 80-90 countries, three years ago was record with 108 countries. It is all connected to the main target for me, that I announced at the General Assembly in Khanty Mansiysk, this is to reach 1 billion chess players. The FIDE Chess in Schools program is developing in many directions. Last year I met several times with the director of UNECO Irina Bokova, and they will put chess in UNESCO Heritage Program.

Chessdom: Some years back you had support from Rosneft 1 million dollars…

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: … more than 1 million dollars, they also supported programs in Russia and other countries, so only for Chess in Schools they spent about 2 million dollars…

Chessdom:… but now they canceled this support, so how will you finance Chess in Schools now?

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: Besides my personal money, other organizations support and will continue to support Chess in Schools, like Gazprom Bank, Titan Group, etc. Some give one hundred thousand, others two hundred thousand, some smaller give fifty thousand… Not to forget the Greek company of my friend Ivan Savvidis, he also supports children’s programs in the Greek Chess Federation: next month there will be big children’s events supported by him. In Switzerland we have support by Falcon Group and Neva Foundation… In Vietnam is my friend, the former President of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh and his native town with donations from local companies, and so on.

Increasing membership

Chessdom: Reviewing your election program, you said that you want to raise the number of chess federations to 200.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: Now they are 181, and by the end of the year ten more members will join. I visit and talk to the future members. For example Saudi Arabia, Oman, also some African countries like the Central African Republic. Step by step. I also rely on my Vice Presidents Geoffrey Borg, Ali Nihat Yazici, Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos to help with increasing the members. I think this year we will reach 192 or 193 federations.

Olympic Inclusion

Chessdom: A recurring topic in your campaign has been the inclusion of chess in the Olympic movement.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: We already talked about one of the most important things I discuss during my travels, the Chess in Schools program. The second is the involvement of chess in the Olympic program. Last year I met with the President of the Olympic Committee Tomas Bach, and we will have another important meeting in Laussane. We are on the way to be included in the Winter Olympic program. There are two main ideas beneficial for the Olympiad: first is to involve the African countries, who do not participate in the Winter Olympics, and the second is to put chess between the morning and the evening program, when there is nothing scheduled. The idea is very well accepted by the people organizing the Olympiad. And it is good for chess, we are used to playing at the early afternoon!
With Anatoly Karpov, who works also in this direction, we discussed what is the best format. We decided the competition should be rapid chess, for men and women. After this Presidential Board, where we will discuss this idea, the format proposal will be given to the International Olympic Committee.
A few years ago I met with the former President of IOC Jaques Rogge and he asked me, “Kirsan, please, ask the National Olympic Committees to support chess as an Olympic sport.” Now I wrote an official letter to the Presidents of National Olympic Committees and we started receiving many letters of support from National Olympic Committee Presidents. I want to collect more than 100 such letters of support, because in 117 countries National Chess Federations are included in National Olympic Committees. It is a large process, now I have organized a big lobby for chess inside IOC and we will see the results.

[Roger de Coverly]

The second is the involvement of chess in the Olympic program. Last year I met with the President of the Olympic Committee Tomas Bach, and we will have another important meeting in Laussane. We are on the way to be included in the Winter Olympic program. There are two main ideas beneficial for the Olympiad: first is to involve the African countries, who do not participate in the Winter Olympics, and the second is to put chess between the morning and the evening program, when there is nothing scheduled. The idea is very well accepted by the people organizing the Olympiad. And it is good for chess, we are used to playing at the early afternoon!

You wonder whether the African angle has hope of success. A practical problem is that even the relatively few GMs would not make much of a showing against Carlsen, Aronian, Anand etc. I cannot say I had noticed any gap in Winter Olympic timings. Being winter, daylight is limited, so I would have thought the whole day had to be used. Aren't timings affected by what TV schedulers want?

[Stewart Reuben]

I don't understand why Kirsan didn't simply offer to pay for a chess event in Sochi in his own federation. A rapidplay, limited to men rated 2600+ and women 2450+ wouldn't have been that expensive. Bring the Africans in by making it a minimum of 6 from each continent. The organisers could even have been paid a sum for the privilege. That would have been a vote winner for him.

[Chris Rice]

Kasparov starts begging the Baltic states to vote for him based on anti-Putin sentiment.

http://kasparov2014.com/2014/03/13/appe ... derations/

So Putin starts cutting off Kasparov's websites....

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/13/russia ... -kasparov/

[Ian Kingston]

The BBC report on Putin's website blocking mentions Kasparov but doesn't feel the need to explain who he is. Fame indeed.

[Chris Rice]

The following was on KI’s campaign site this morning. The accusation from him clearly is that Kasparov is using the Ukrainian situation to persuade the Baltic States to vote for him because of his anti-Putin stance rather than anything to do with chess. Which is probably true. Clearly KI is upset that Kasparov is playing chess politics and appealing to people’s consciences instead of sticking to the traditional method of giving them bribes and backhanders.

Media: Kasparov and his EU Allies Intend to Turn FIDE into an Anti-Russian Propaganda Tool

18 Mar 2014

Influential Russian daily newspaper “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” writes: “Political crisis in Ukraine might turn into a Chess Cold War. Garry Kasparov’s allies in the Baltics publically opposed the candidacy of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in the upcoming FIDE elections. Kasparov’s allies see the FIDE elections as proxy for the ‘holy war against Vladimir Putin’ and likely prepared to turn FIDE into the anti-Kremlin political Special Forces”.
FIDE President stated on numerous occasions that FIDE and Chess should stay away from politics.

Source: http://fidefirst.com/?p=1157